A lemur fossil is discovered in Pakistan

2001/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

Lemurs live in Madagascar. The fauna and flora of this African island is not comparable to that of any other territory of this continent. Scientists believe that these primates appeared 60 million years ago, but so far no fossils of more than 40,000 years have been found in Madagascar. In 1999, French researchers discovered in Pakistan a fossilized lemure tooth of about 30 million years.

This fossil reinforces the hypothesis of the Asian origin of lemures. Madagascar was distributed from Asia 88 million years ago. According to scientists, lemurs appeared on this continent and, from another small island, migrated to Madagascar. Today Madagascar is very close to Africa, but there are many reasons to think that the origin of the species that inhabit there is Asia.